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Miss Dedrick, a teacher's aide from Albany, was marching close to Union Square when she was surrounded by police and sprayed by NYPD Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna.

The now notorious video of the incident, which has been viewed 1.5 million times online, shows police rounding up Miss Derrick and fellow protesters in orange netting, before the officer approaches and sprays them in the face.

Mr Grodt, an activist and journalist who had hitchhiked from Santa Cruz, California, to help at the protests, went to her help as Miss Dedrick fell to the sidewalk covering her eyes and screaming in agony.

Meeting: The couple started their romance after Miss Dedrick was taken to a movie theatre to be treated by Mr Grodt

'They were screaming,' Mr Grodt told
website DNA info. 'A lot got it in their mouth, down their throat…. It
was completely unprovoked.'

He took Miss Dedrick to a nearby movie theatre where he treated her with a homemade Maalox solution that counteracts the acidity of pepper spray.

'I was treating her in a utility closet,' Mr Grodt told the Daily News.

Afterwards the couple went up on to the movie theatre's roof where they bonded while discussing police brutality.

They say that they would not have got together if it was not for the incident.

'It happened for the good cause of the occupation,' Miss Dedrick told the Daily News.

On Facebook and Twitter Miss Dedrick calls herself 'Kay the gay' and 'Kay the queer'. She is also a member of gay rights groups.

Mr Grodt has also been pictured at the protests lying on a bed with a different woman.

Bologna was stripped of 10 vacation days as punishment after an NYPD internal investigation.